5 Obamacare questions Kathleen Sebelius won’t answer

Sebelius is expected to testify next week. | M.Scott Mahaskey/POLITICO

Younger and healthier people, accustomed to seamless online experiences, may not bother with a site that is decidedly clunky. If only sick or expensive people sign up, the exchanges could fall into a “death spiral” in which premiums go up to cover sicker enrollees, causing fewer healthy people to sign up, in a vicious cycle. And that’s the biggest single threat to Obamacare.

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The glitch-laden launch has given Republicans perhaps the best fodder yet for their argument for delaying Obamacare — or at least the hated individual mandate.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said Monday that he would introduce legislation to delay the mandate until six months after the Government Accountability Office can certify that the website is functional.

“It is not fair that next year Americans will be punished for not buying Obamacare when the website they are supposed to buy it on doesn’t work,” Rubio said in a statement. He also told consumers to document problems they are having with the site to protect themselves from potential fraud and “penalties once the mandate is enforced.”

The administration doesn’t want to scrap the mandate, since it’s the best way to prevent the “death spiral” by bringing a lot of people in. But even if it leaves the mandate as is, the White House has some leeway over the related deadlines and signup times. Sebelius isn’t likely to be very specific about any changes that the administration may decide are necessary down the road.

“If you do not have access to affordable insurance, you won’t be penalized for not buying affordable insurance,” he said. He said the administration plans to smooth out concerns over the 2014 open enrollment period and the deadline for avoiding a mandate penalty.

HHS is “working on aligning those policies — the enrollment period and the individual responsibility [fine],” Carney said, adding that HHS will be issuing guidance “soon.”

4. How many people have actually enrolled?

Good luck getting an answer to that one. The administration has repeatedly said it won’t release those numbers until mid-November, although some states running their own exchanges have released their own figures.

The administration said over the weekend that about 476,000 people have sent in applications for Obamacare coverage across the country, the most detailed update yet. But that’s just the initial application. Far fewer have completed enrollment. The administration hopes for 7 million by the end of March in exchanges, and millions more in Medicaid.

One reason they don’t want to reveal the numbers — they probably aren’t very big, given how hard it is to sign up. And that just doesn’t look very good, though officials also expected a somewhat slow start. They figured people would sign on, shop around, think about their insurance options, maybe visit the site a few times before making a choice and sending in their payment. Coverage doesn’t start until January.

5. Why didn’t the White House have a good backup plan?

For months leading up to the Oct. 1 launch, administration officials said they had contingency plans for glitches in the rollout. But they never spelled out what those plans were. They still haven’t.

Here’s what we do know: The administration has called in unidentified “best and brightest” tech minds from the government and private sectors. Insurers and e-brokers are supposed to be able to enroll people directly — but they, too, are having trouble interacting with the federal exchange.

Obama and the updated Obamacare website are urging people to mail in paper applications or use the call center, which is far from the smooth and seamless signup that had been promoted.

“Your call cannot be completed at this time. Please try your call again later,” an automated message told one reporter. Another reporter made it further into the process — and was referred to HealthCare.gov.